Patient baptized in pool before he died

Thomas Roberts, an atheist most of his life, was a hospital patient with only a few days to live when he decided he wanted to be baptized by immersion.

UAB Hospital Chaplain Corey Agricola got the call. Roberts’ family expressed interest in baptism, but Agricola met with him alone to make sure it’s what he wanted.

“I thought it was important to visit with the patient,” Agricola told AL.com. “He was able to articulate this was a gift he wanted to give his family. He made a decision two weeks prior to serve the Lord. He wanted to be baptized to signify the decision he already made. This is something he wanted. He became tearful as he talked about it. Time was of the essence. He was not expected to live through the day."

Agricola said chaplains routinely comfort people who are not religious. “If that patient continued to be an atheist, I would be just as effective as a chaplain, talking about what his meaning and purpose was," Agricola said.

“I wanted to make sure this is what the patient wanted,” he said. “Everything we do is based on the patient’s needs. I would not perform a ceremony that was not in keeping with the patient’s wishes. I would never, without knowing for certain, that’s what the patient wanted, have done this.”

Wheelchair-bound and dying of lung cancer, unable to breathe without oxygen tubes, baptism by immersion proved to be a challenge, according to UAB News.

Agricola and the UAB palliative care team came up with a plan to baptize him on Sept. 4.

“It was a major effort by a lot of moving pieces and different teams to pull this off,” Agricola said. “If it had not been for the team, this could not have happened.”

Agricola cleared the idea with Roberts’ physician, Dr. Ashley Nichols, making sure Roberts could be off oxygen long enough to go under water. Although Agricola suggested baptism by sprinkling, Roberts wanted to follow his family’s tradition of baptism by total immersion, he said.

Roberts and his family gathered at the swimming pool at Spain Rehabilitation Center.

Roberts was lowered into the pool with a chairlift, and into the arms of Agricola and physical therapist Marissa Smith.

“We thank God for the good and perfect gift of this day,” Agricola said. “This is one of the greatest days of your life, Thomas, because we are celebrating your new life.”

When Roberts was ready, he gave Agricola a thumbs-up.

Agricola dunked him backwards, and Roberts was baptized as he wished, “in the name of your Lord Jesus.”

He died the next week, on Sept. 9. He was 56.

“I don’t know what could be a better gift than the feeling of peace, and that is what we have now,” said Brooke Carr, Roberts’ niece.

“It brings me complete comfort and peace because I know where he is going now,” said Gina Gibson, Roberts’ sister. “I don’t have to worry about it. Now there will be great joy just knowing where he is going. He is at peace. He was born again. You could see that on his face after the baptism. He was born again.”

Thomas Roberts, a lung cancer patient at UAB Hospital, was baptized days before he died. He was lowered into a swimming pool with a chairlift. (UAB News)

Note to readers: if you purchase something through one of our affiliate links we may earn a commission.